12/16/2010 @ 1:20PM

How To Stop Procrastinating

Joseph R. Ferrari has spent his professional life studying procrastination. In 1985 as a student at Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y., he took a class called “Self-defeating Behaviors.” He asked his teacher if procrastination had ever been studied in depth, and she said she thought so, but wasn’t sure. He investigated and discovered that no one had taken a serious, thorough look at the subject, so he decided to tackle it himself.

Twenty-five years later, a Ph.D. in experimental psychology and dozens of academic studies and articles behind him, Ferrari is a psychology professor at DePaul University in Chicago, and has published a book titled Still Procrastinating? The No-Regrets Guide to Getting It Done.

Ferrari says everybody procrastinates, but not everyone is a procrastinator. “A procrastinator is someone who habitually and consistently delays tasks,” he explains. That’s about 20% of the population, he says. His research has shown that the number holds around the world, in countries as far flung as Venezuela, Poland, Australia and Saudi Arabia. Hardcore procrastinators should read his book, he recommends, but they should also head straight to a therapist, preferably someone who practices cognitive behavioral therapy. “You can unlearn to do things,” he explains.

For the rest of us, who engage in occasional delaying tactics, lateness or putting off until tomorrow what we know we should do today, Ferrari has lots of no-nonsense, research-tested suggestions. Though he thinks it’s good to try to figure out why you postpone tasks–fear of failure, the myth that you work best under pressure–he believes in getting on with things.

For instance, keep a to-do list, and update it often. Set your priorities, and tackle the most urgent matters first. After the most pressing tasks, do the worst jobs next. Putting them off will just make your whole workload seem more impossible. Also, set realistic goals and deadlines.

Ferrari does not buy the notion that computers and cellphones make it harder for us to get work done. We just need to manage our technological distractions. Check your e-mail once an hour only, he advises. Don’t follow up or answer an e-mail unless it’s necessary. Don’t open one when you don’t have time to read it. Quickly delete messages to get them out of your inbox.

At work figure out who your most productive colleagues are, and team up with them. “Work in teams,” he advises. “Surround yourself with non-procrastinators.” Try modeling yourself after a colleague who gets a lot done. Ferrari points out that everyone loves flattery. Pull your highest-producing colleague aside and ask if you might shadow her for a time. She’ll probably say yes.

Do stay on task. If you return from a meeting to an inbox full of requests, get done what you already needed to get done before dealing with all those new assignments.

Ferrari says that at work you need to pick your projects carefully. Many people feel compelled to get involved in all the big accounts or projects at their office, but if you stay focused and effectively manage the needs of a few select clients, the boss will be more impressed.

He is a stickler for punctuality. When I phoned him at 2:32 p.m. for an agreed-upon 2:30 interview, he sounded annoyed. “How are you?” I began. “I’m sitting here waiting for your call,” he shot back. I quickly learned that he believes tolerating lateness encourages procrastinators. “I had an economics professor in college who would lock the door two minutes after class started,” he told me with relish. “Students learned they had to get there on time.”

“I’m a New Yorker,” he explained. “I say, ‘Get a life. Move it.’” When I asked him to elaborate, he continued: “My Italian grandmother had a saying: ‘Some people, they won’t get off the beach until their behind gets wet.’” He says that line is even better in Italian. But his final word is this: “Let procrastinators bottom out. Let them fail. Then they’ll have the conversion experience.”